I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to workpiece holders, and more particularly, to a workpiece holder for selectively clamping the workpiece to a work table.
II. Description of the Prior Art
For many types of manufacturing operations, such as a drilling operation, a workpiece must be secured against movement to a work table. There have been many previously known devices, such as C-clamps and vises for securing the workpiece to the work table. These previously known devices are typically manually operated and are consequently time consuming to operate. The previously known manually operated workpiece holders thus unnecessarily increase the labor costs of the manufacturing operation.
Other previously known workpiece holders have been devised in which the workpiece holder is machine, rather than manually, powered. While machine powered workpiece holders are adequate in operation and generally accepted in the trade, such workpiece holders are very expensive not only to purchase but also to install and maintain. Moreover such workpiece holders typically must be specially designed and manufactured for a particular manufacturing operation so that the workpiece holder is not readily adaptable to other types of manufacturing operations.